Time Warner's CEO Will Get Paid $80 Million If He Sells To Comcast, Even Though TW Loses 200K Customers Per Quarter (TWC)

Friday

Mar 21, 2014 at 9:02 PM

Jim Edwards

Comcast wants to buy Time Warner, and Time Warner CEO Rob Marcus is so in favor of the deal that, after Comcast said it was not willing to pay a termination fee if the deal fell through, Marcus and his board agreed to pursue the deal anyway.

There are two interesting coincidences that might explain why Time Warner is so enthusiastic about being acquired.

1. Time Warner CEO Rob Marcus will get an $80 million payout if he sells the company. CFO Arthur Minson Jr. will get $27.1 million, CTO Michael LaJoie gets $16.3 million, and COO Philip Meeks gets $11.7 million in the deal.

2. Time Warner is losing subscribers like a sieve. Here are the most recent stats from One Touch Intelligence, which tracks TV and broadband subscriber data:

Note that most of those points on the chart are below zero — meaning the companies lose subscribers most quarters. Comcast looks like it might be turning things around. Time Warner ... the less said about those metrics, the better.

So, bottom line: Time Warner is currently losing about 200,000 customers per quarter, and its CEO is in line for an $80 million golden parachute.

Here is the explanation for that anomaly: TWC's stock price has risen hansomely over the last two years, easily beating the broader market:

In sum, Marcus may get rich, but his investors already got richer.

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